


Garden Spirit

by Trashratsaws



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Falling In Love, Fluff, Gardens & Gardening, M/M, Mutual Pining, cryptid AU, literally just fluff i don't know what to tell you
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:54:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28104273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trashratsaws/pseuds/Trashratsaws
Summary: Tree spirit!Sapnap encounters gardener!Karl in his grove and they have a little afternoon together.
Relationships: Karl Jacobs/Sapnap
Comments: 8
Kudos: 87





	Garden Spirit

Sapnap’s words had a tendency to come out wrong. Things sounded better in his head. He tended to be brash, loud, abrasive. And he wasn’t sure anyone who knew him expected anything more or less. They knew what he meant by what he said, and that he only really ever talked to plants with earnesty and care. The plants knew what he meant, too. He would walk over to his favorite tree, the one that reminded him of himself, or at least he thought it did, and he would sit and look up and talk to the leaves about his day, and tell them he thought they looked pretty with the light coming through the leaves in the afternoons, but perhaps in slightly less gentle words, and the tree would thank him. And he’d never wanted this with anything more than his trees and his flowers and his grass. 

Then a peculiar little faery wandered its way into his grove. 

“Karl!” he called out to the faery one day, finding him in the grove on his own, soil and fertilizer plastered on his jeans and his perfectly oversized gardening gloves. “What are you doing?” 

“I’m gardening, duh,” said the garden faery, with a dopey grin on his face that made Sapnap’s heart stutter. 

He looked over Karl’s shoulder to see a beautiful, drooping white flower. A lily of the valley, he recognized, without remembering where he acquired this knowledge. Sapnap had always thought they were lovely, despite only a fuzzy recollection of seeing one in person. They reminded him of Karl’s soft, dappled mushroom freckles, and he could swear they made the sound of little golden bells when they swayed in the wind. 

He tried to think of something appropriate to say. Karl’s concentration felt like a careful thing to tread around, so Sapnap stepped lightly. He crouched gently next to him.

“What are you gardening --planting? Gardening.” Spectacular. Out the window went smooth composure, then. 

The garden faery laughed lightly. It was a sound not unlike the lily bells. “It’s one of my favorite flowers. Lily of the valley, it’s called,” he said, patting the soil carefully. Sapnap didn’t understand it, but he watched anyway, fascinated. “I always thought they looked like those little caps of snow that settle on pine trees.” 

“It’s pretty,” Sapnap said, as his voice cracked. He coughed to cover it up, but Karl turned his head away and put his hand to his mouth to laugh out loud. 

When he turned back there was a patch of dirt across his cheek, probably from his glove. Before he could stop himself, Sapnap was reaching over to wipe it away with his thumb. He felt Karl’s surprised breath on his palm, and pulled away starkly. He’d done something inappropriate hadn’t he. 

“Thanks,” said the faery, softly. 

Sapnap turned quickly back to the flower as Karl reached around to grab his watering can. Its leaves were long and slender, and a pale blue-green that Sapnap thought reminded him of the stream by the grove. Karl loved it there. 

“Hey, Lily of the Valley,” said Sapnap, to the flower. “You’re real pretty.” 

The faery watched endearingly from the sides as Sapnap made a mild fool of himself. He plucked a daisy out of his hair that wasn’t there before. 

“You’re real cute. Just like your dad,” said Sapnap.

“Dad?” said Karl. 

“Yeah, you planted her.” 

“...I guess I did. Hey Lily of the Valley. I’m your dad now.”

Karl bent low with his hands on his knees and tapped the tip of his nose to the flower petals. Sapnap had to turn away before Karl saw the red on his face. Rose petals fell from his hair. 

Behind him, Karl rose to his feet and moved over to Sapnap’s tree, whose branches reminded Sapnap of home. Or the vague idea of it anyway. He lounged across it and decompressed with a sigh. His eyes were closed, but turned up to the canopy. Sapnap followed him out of instinct. 

“You done gardening today?” 

“Yeah. I just wanna chill for the rest of the afternoon.” 

Sapnap settled a respectful distance from Karl, which Karl quickly closed by pressing himself up against him warmly. A cool but not cold breeze blew through the grove, compelling Sapnap to swing his arm over Karl’s shoulder. He hoped desperately that this was ok. Karl sighed wistfully. 

“Don’t worry,” he recited. “If anyone comes, I’ll get lost.” 

“You don’t have to,” Sapnap said, holding his tongue to avoid saying  _ “I want people to see you with me” _ too. 

They both sank comfortably into the grass. Sapnap’s cheek fell neatly to caress Karl’s hair. He smelled like running water and roses and a little bit of vanilla. It almost made him sleepy. 

“Sap?” 

“Yeah, Karl?” 

“What’s your favorite flower?” 

Sapnap thought about it.  _ You. _ He didn’t really have a favorite. He loved them all equally. So he said that. 

“All of them?” Karl asked. 

“Yeah. We have a bunch here in the grove that I like, but honestly most of them I just like cuz they’re pretty.” 

“Heh. Yeah, they are, huh? Especially all together like this.”

“Yeah…” 

Sapnap struggled to find a place to settle his hand over Karl’s shoulder, and eventually settled on hanging it idly by his arm. Karl pressed up close. 

“What about you?” Sapnap asked, to keep himself distracted. 

“Hm. I’m not sure. I like the way red caps look when they grow next to oak trees, but those aren’t flowers.” 

“No, but it is pretty.” He’d said pretty one too many times now.  _ It’s what I think of you.  _ Dammit, Karl probably thought he was just agreeing with everything he said just to agree. He turned to look him in the eyes, if anything to convey his sincerity somehow, only to come across his ever shifting kaleidoscopes-for-irises and forget how to breathe. 

He always forgot how Karl’s eyes could make any man pass away for a few seconds. The way they caught the light was unnatural, but in the most magical way. Like they were made of refracting glass and flower petals. Before he knew it he was lost in them again. And Karl stared back into Sapnap’s messy amber eyes as if he saw something in them just as fascinating. 

A rustling in the bushes broke both of them out of their stupor. A flash of brown implied it was Wilbur, but from where he stood, he wouldn't be able to see into the grove for another few seconds. And yet, Karl rushed to stand, regretfully tearing himself from Sapnap’s embrace and gathering his things so that he could rush into the trees and disappear until tomorrow, or the day after, a sight that Sapnap was beginning to grow contempt for. 

He wanted to hold his hand to pull him back, wanted to tell him to stay before he turned his back to him, but before a single word could come out of his mouth, Karl was pressing a soft kiss to his cheek and fluttering off into the leaves. 

Wilbur walked in to find him staring into the forest, stunned and red as a red cap --probably redder. 

“What’s with you?” he asked, probably already knowing, considering the bags under his eyes meant he’d just come from the future. 

Sapnap didn’t answer. Only lifted a hand to cup his cheek where he could still feel Karl’s lips. Pressed his other hand to his arm, where he could still feel it against Karl’s shoulders and neck. Where he’d cuddled up to him, as if the warm air wasn’t enough. 

“Nothing.” 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you @tbhyourelame for beta reading, I love you more than life itself for it. 
> 
> Hi discord.


End file.
